Podcast | The New American Dream Radio Showhttps://newdream.us
streaming every Thursday since Feb 3, 2011Fri, 29 May 2020 15:01:06 +0000en-US
hourly
1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1April 9, 2020https://newdream.us/podcast/april-9-2020/
https://newdream.us/podcast/april-9-2020/#respondFri, 29 May 2020 14:48:39 +0000https://newdream.us/?post_type=podcast&p=31949I opened with If I Felll then introduced Sheena Powell Szuri, who noted the huge changes in the world since her previous appearance a month earlier. To give us some respite from our isolation, we discussed some of the things people are doing online: Patrick Stewart, Keith Urban, and Amanda Palmer. She then read two poems: her own The MIghty Oak, and Sherwood Ross’ The Astronomers. We proceeded to discuss online opportunities and planned to do a poetry zoom (that still hasn’t happened as I write this on May 29). She mentioned the Jazz Yoga events she is doing on WDNA.

The second segment as usual featured Philip Farruggio’s Its the Empire, Stupid. He opened with his column Crocodile Tears. We proceeded to discuss the charitable donations of the super-rich and their “huge” donations – which are tiny percentages of their actual net worth. The pandemic of greed.

The third segment this week had Richard Flamer in a prerecorded interview from Chiapas, Mexico. He discussed the Coronavirus and government response in Mexico. Economy is typically a day-to-day affair, with women buying that day’s food for their families, etc. The poor have given up their shared rooms in the cities and moved to their rural homes. Roadblocks are in place to prevent entry by non-residents. People are buying in quantity from Sam’s or Wal-Mart and reselling at huge profit at regional markets. He described how immigration authorities bused 480 Guatemalans and Hondurans from holding facilities in northern Mexico to the Guatemalan border and dumped them off. Guatemalan troops refused to let them cross the border. The National Guard was called in to quell a riot. Meanwhile the drug cartels continued their violence, but the biggest conflict came when President Lopez-Obrador tried to shut down alcohol sales. He discussed an economic plan that was being implemented that included public works projects to build infrastructure and money going to the people, not big business. Basically, it’s the New Deal. He described a booming music scene with street musicians jamming on Facebook, etc. He described his own life, social distancing, visits over the Internet with his wife Araceli who is in Des Moines. He mentioned the passing of Bill Withers and John Prine and what a loss that is, including his personal memories of them. This great conversation led well into my next conversation with Frank Cordaro at the Des Moines Catholic Worker, which completed the segment.

The final part of the show had Thomas Wertman discussing what’s happening in the UFO scene in Ohio. Current reports had dropped due to people not going outside, so he had time to research reports from Navy ships NImitz and Teddy Roosevelt in which videos showed something unidentifiable. The Navy has updated their procedures for reporting in recent years; what about the Air Force? These questions are being suppressed by the government. It was a very interesting segment.

]]>https://newdream.us/podcast/april-9-2020/feed/0April 2, 2020https://newdream.us/podcast/april-2-2020/
https://newdream.us/podcast/april-2-2020/#respondThu, 28 May 2020 23:19:19 +0000https://newdream.us/?post_type=podcast&p=31947I opened by playing Tim Smith’s corona version of Please Release Me – one of the few times in recent memory that I didn’t sing the opening myself. It was great. I then introduced Ava Bird, and after we discussed my wife Lorraine’s recent hospital visit, she shared a message from the wise old family cat! Ava is always great but this is an exceptionally creative presentation absolutely not to be missed. She created this specially for our show, and promised more in her next appearance. I then played my conversation with Frank Cordaro at the Des Moines Catholic Worker. He continued his description of what’s happening at the DCW duting this Baby Boomer Apocalypse. He’s isolating with some others who are at risk in addition to Jessica Resnicek who is under house arrest awaiting trial for the pipeline destruction from a couple years ago.

The second segment as usual featured Philip Farruggio with his segment, It’s the Empire, Stupid. This week he started with his column, Time to Rein in the Super-Rich. This was focused on the super-rich virus which Philip says is even worse than corona. We had an excellent conversation after he read his column.

For the third segment I played my earlier interview with Azzurra Crispino of Prison Absolution Prisoner Support. She gave us an amazing story about Covid-19 being detected in Marion Correctional Facility where her husband, James, is incarcerated. There’s no social distancing when 120 prisoners are present in a small area. He should be eligible for early release in two months but in the meantime he’s in the middle of an epidemic. The prison system is horrible.

For the final segment, Karen Kwiatkowski was not available but I was able to include my original co-host, Mike Palecek. There was snow on the ground in Minnesota, even though it was April. He and I heard from Randall from Stevens Point, did an episode of The Americans, and finished with the News from Moon Rock Lake.

It was a terrific show.

]]>https://newdream.us/podcast/april-2-2020/feed/0March 26, 2020https://newdream.us/podcast/march-26-2020/
https://newdream.us/podcast/march-26-2020/#respondFri, 22 May 2020 14:50:17 +0000https://newdream.us/?post_type=podcast&p=31935I opened with another parody – new Covid-19 lyrics to Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline. I then introduced Mike Bond, and after we discussed my wife being in the hospital we proceeded to talk about the Covid situation, and how our perspective a month earlier had been quite different from what actually happened. He was concerned about a complete collapse of the economy, and also addressed the Swedish model of handling the crisis. He called for us to all come together to solve this problem, avoiding partisan politics.

The second segment as always featured Philip Farruggio with It’s the Empire, Stupid. He had me play his earlier interview with Ellen Brown as his column for this week. The focus was on the Stimulus Bill, Universal Basic Income, and related matters.

The third segment had Michael Annis who focused on Albert Goldbarth, reading the poem The Reader Wondering in addition to presenting an intriguing biography. Michael finished his segment with a poem by Ken Greenley, Me and my Mr. Hyde.

The final segment this week included my prerecorded conversation with Frank Cordaro of the Des Moines Catholic Worker, followed by our African correspondent Julius Awafong reporting from Yaounde, Cameroon. I closed with Ripple.

]]>https://newdream.us/podcast/march-26-2020/feed/0March 19, 2020https://newdream.us/podcast/march-19-2020/
https://newdream.us/podcast/march-19-2020/#respondFri, 22 May 2020 00:24:47 +0000https://newdream.us/?post_type=podcast&p=31926I opened with a parody of Covid’s Lament, a parody of Adelaide’s Lament from Guys and Dolls. I then brought in Anthony Rayson.

The second segment as usual had Philip Farruggio with It’s the Empire Stupid. He talked about Money for Something.

The third segment featured Larry Pinkney, followed by my prerecorded conversation with Frank Cordaro.

The final guest of the evening was M.K. Davis.

]]>https://newdream.us/podcast/march-19-2020/feed/0March 12, 2020https://newdream.us/podcast/march-12-2020/
https://newdream.us/podcast/march-12-2020/#respondThu, 21 May 2020 21:31:26 +0000https://newdream.us/?post_type=podcast&p=31924I opened with Fire and Rain and then introduced our first guest, Sheena Powell Szuri. She discussed the amazing differences that had happened over the last month, and expressed her disappointment with the isolationism response from President Trump as a result of the impending Covid-19 crisis. She likened the new crisis to the bubonic plague, and read an excerpt from The Decameron by ‎Giovanni Boccaccio. This was the beginning of ‘lockdown’ in Florida so there was a lot to talk about.

The second segment, Phil Farruggio’s It’s The Empire, Stupid, featured his column, The Lemming and Apathy Virus.

The third segment featured Richard Flamer who joined us from Chiapas, Mexico. He talked about the cold in Iowa (he had just returned to his farm in Mexico) and also the process of getting US citizenship for his wife of 16 years, Araceli. He decried the costs and commented, “Legal immigration is for the rich. Only.” I then played my conversation with Frank Cordaro, a founding member of the Des Moines Catholic Worker.

The final segment had Thomas Wertman, who told us about the reporting process for UFO sightings. His phone had been beeping with incoming reports, so he sent an investigator out… by the end of one night he had over 10 reports. It was a fascinating look into how his organization MUFON checks out and classifies reports.

]]>https://newdream.us/podcast/march-12-2020/feed/0March 5, 2020https://newdream.us/podcast/march-5-2020/
https://newdream.us/podcast/march-5-2020/#respondThu, 21 May 2020 20:43:53 +0000https://newdream.us/?post_type=podcast&p=31921Due to some technical issues I jumped right in to our first guest, Ava Bird, who had prerecorded a special piece, Happy Flu Season. It was a short segment.

The second segment as usual featured Philip Farruggio with It’s the Empire, Stupid. This column was “Banana Amerika – The Fix Is In” and it was all about Super Tuesday and what happened to Bernie Sanders.

The third segment had Azzurra Crispino joining us to talk about prison visitation and its challenges.

For our final segment, I played my earlier conversation with Frank Cordaro, then added the final guest of the night, Karen Kwiatkowski. Karen gave us a rundown of the news, starting with the Flu Season and the CDC, proceeding into the urge for governments toward totalitarianism, and then closing with the mess that is called the Democratic Party.

]]>https://newdream.us/podcast/march-5-2020/feed/0February 27, 2020https://newdream.us/podcast/february-27-2020/
https://newdream.us/podcast/february-27-2020/#respondFri, 15 May 2020 18:41:29 +0000https://newdream.us/?post_type=podcast&p=31910I opened with The Working Life, then brought in Mike Bond. We discussed the virus that was just starting to be a hot topic in the news, and both thought it was over-hyped. Since he is in a low-traffic island there was not too much impact anticipated. He cited a number of research sources including the Institute Pasteur that were relatively calm.

The third segment had Michael Annis, who featured the work of Ken Greenley, who was to have been on this show but died some two weeks earlier. Since Ken had appeared on our show, I had a recording of him reading his poem Gasoholic and played that as part of this memorial segment. Michael then read several more of Greenley’s poems to finish up.

For the final segment I played two additional poems by Ken Greenley, then my earlier conversation with Frank Cordaro of the Des Moines Catholic Worker, then Julius Awafong with his column from Yaounde, Cameroon.

]]>https://newdream.us/podcast/february-27-2020/feed/0February 20, 2020https://newdream.us/podcast/february-20-2020/
https://newdream.us/podcast/february-20-2020/#respondFri, 15 May 2020 14:52:05 +0000https://newdream.us/?post_type=podcast&p=31902I opened with Midnight Special, then introduced “ghetto-born anarchist” Lemar Hybachi, filling in for Anthony Rayson. Lemar was in a halfway house, and had quite a lot to say about restructuring society and overthrowing government. It was quite a conversation.

The second segment as usual had Philip Farruggio with his latest column from It’s the Empire Stupid: Junior High School Amerika. He compared politics in the modern USA with the Junior High Student Council race from his childhood (when Chuck Schumer ran!).

The third segment featured original Black Panther Larry Pinkney who emphasized the importance of critical thinking and civility in political discourse, followed by Frank Cordaro with info about the ways and means of the Catholic Worker Movement. I closed the segment discussing Nonviolent Revolution, in contrast to Lemar’s earlier presentation.

The final guest of the evening was M.K. Davis, who had some very interesting things to say about how animals (and perhaps Bigfoot/Sasquatch?) adapt to circumstances. We had a great conversation to close the show.

The second segment as usual featured Philip Farruggio with “It’s the Empire, Stupid.”

The third segment was a fantastic conversation with Richard Flamer who’s visiting the Des Moines Catholic Worker. His wife Araceli is living there while going through all the steps to get resident status in the US. Richard returns to Chiapas soon but she has to stay in the US for several months.

For the fourth segment I played my conversation with Frank Cordaro of the Des Moines Catholic Worker, and then to close we had Thomas Wertman talking about UFOs.

]]>https://newdream.us/podcast/feb-13-2020/feed/0February 6, 2020 – Anniversary Showhttps://newdream.us/podcast/february-6-2020-anniversary-show/
https://newdream.us/podcast/february-6-2020-anniversary-show/#respondThu, 16 Apr 2020 22:20:54 +0000https://newdream.us/?post_type=podcast&p=31877I opened with Bill Hicks’ “It’s Just A Ride” followed by “Give Peace a Chance” and then introduced Mike Palecek who was kind enough to co-host this anniversary show, the beginning of the tenth year of The New American Dream Radio Show. And then I introduced Ava Bird, who was the first guest on our first show and is still with us all these years later on the first show of the tenth season. We had a wonderful 3 way conversation and then Ava read A Love Poem to Mother Earth.

The second segment as usual featured Philip Farruggio with his column It’s the Empire, Stupid. His column this week was “Down the Rabbit Hole.” A great conversatiion ensued, with MIke asking about the Iowa debacle. “The Democrats can’t even steal their own caucus” was a comment I mentioned. It was an exciting segment.

The third part of the show started with Frank Cordaro’s prerecorded conversation. He introduced the Catholic Worker Aims and Means, the guide for how Catholic Worker groups operate. It was quite interesting. Frank was also on our very first episode. I then played a column by Sherwood Ross from April 2011 – Sherwood was our first recurring guest, appearing every month until the fall in 2016 that eventually led to his death.

For the final segment of the show, Karen Kwiatkowski joined us and presented some of the crazy things going on in Virginia. She talked about the rich counties near DC, and the rest of the state that’s mostly farmland, and the two parts don’t get along very well. She brought up the blackface pictures of their Democratic governor, the rape charges against the lieutenant governor, and the crazy shenanigans that have gone on. They ratified the ERA (45 years too late). Etc. It was fascinating and, frankly, hilarious.

I am blessed with wonderful guests and for this show had my co-host back. Wonderful.